Unknown - portrait of Karl III of Pfalz-Zweibrucken

Karl III von der Pfalz-Zweibrucken

When first acquired, there was doubt about the identity of the sitter in this miniature by an unknown artist, which is set into the top of a late 18C snuff box. A kind visitor has now been able to supply his identity, which is gratefully received. He is Karl (or Carl) III Duke of Palatinate-Zweibrücken (Pfalz-Zweibrücken) who lived from 1746 to 1795. Confusingly, he sometimes described himself as Karl II.

He was the older brother of Max Joseph, the first King of Bavaria. His life is described in German at Biografische Notiz and the following is an attempt to translate that into English. "On the one hand he was considered as very interested in music and the builder of a large castle with splendid gardens and a rich art collection. But on the other hand, he was described as a despotic ruler, who lived far beyond his financial resources, without considering the needs of his subjects. In particular his passion for the hunt near his castle caused displeasure and protests by the rural population, about harvest damage from the hunt for wild animals. Thus his personality is still disputed.

In 1775 he succeeded his uncle Christian IV, as Duke of Zweibrucken. In the spring of 1776 he moved from his Zweibrücken palace to a new residence at Jägersburg near Sanddorf. At Karlsberg he expressed the expectation, that from his power and his protected situation, he would have a weighty role to play in European policy, as he had the prospect of inheriting Kurpfalz and Bavaria in the background.

However, the French revolution, and the French invasion into German territories destroyed this hope in 1793 and, on 9 February, Karl III August fled before the French troops, who at the end of July 1793 burned his castle down to the foundations. As the last Zweibrücken duke, he died at Mannheim 1795.

Another portrait where he is described as Karl III August Christian Pfalzgraf von
Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken can be seen on page 2 at

http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/LAUER.pdf

Information about the two discounted sitters has been left below, just for interest. They are Elector Karl Theodor of Bavaria (Dec 1724-16 Feb 1799) and Count Rumford, an interesting American who warrants some attention due to his association with Karl Theodor.

Apart from the different colour of lapels on the front of his uniform jacket, the image in the miniature is fairly similar to the enamel miniature of Charles Theodore by Langenhoeffel showing here, which is in the Orange-Nassau Collection of the Dutch Royal Family.

A kind military expert has identified the uniform as that of a lieutenant-general in the Bavarian army.

The name of Karl Theodor translates into English in various forms including Carl Theodor and Charles Theodore, with "The Wordsworth Handbook of Kings & Queens" listing him as Charles IV Theodore, Elector Wittelsbach of the Palatinate (from 1742-1799) (Duke of Salsbach; eleventh in descent from Rupert III). Then he also became Elector of Bavaria after the union of Bavaria and Salsbach in 1777.

A kind visitor has been able to identify and supply images of the two decorations.

"The sitter is wearing the two highest Bavarian Orders.

The breastplate on the top is that of a knight of the Bavarian Order of St Hubertus. It is the highest Bavarian order.

The one below is that of a commander of the second highest Bavarian Order, that of St George."

Carl Theodor did wear these two decorations, but the visitor has observed that the sitter is depicted with no epaulettes, no sashes of the relevant orders, no Golden Fleece, and a simple military uniform instead of Gala.

However, apart from the lapel colours, the uniform does appear similar to the Orange-Nassau portrait.




Count Rumford and the miniature
Another less likely identification is that the miniature represents Count Rumford (1753-1814).

He was an American born as Benjamin Thompson in Woburn Massachusetts, who served as an aide to Karl Theodor in the late 18C.

Rumford is shown here as a younger man in a painting by Thomas Gainsborough from 1783 which has some similarities, although thinner and younger.

Rumford was an aide to Karl Theodor between 1785 and 1796, so it could possibly be him and painted around 1795. As all men of importance wore wigs at the time, it can be quite difficult to identify sitters in 18C portraits.

The dating fits and the sitter is wearing a white uniform. As mentioned below by a kind visitor, some Bavarian cavalry units wore white uniforms. Rumford was appointed a major-general in the Bavarian cavalry in 1785.

Identification as Rumford could also explain the absence of some items of uniform decoration, that might otherwise have been expected on a uniform if it was worn by Karl Theodor.

Currently, it is not known whether Rumford was awarded the two decorations appearing on the uniform. From the later image, he may have been awarded at least one of them, although the decorations are not mentioned on the frontispiece of a book by him, which gives a list of his various titles, including his being a Lieutenant-General.

Also shown here is a painting said to date from 1872, which is well after Rumford died in 1814. It does not look to be early 19C in style and thus it may be an artist's impression of Rumford, not a copy of an actual portrait. See http://www.yeoldewoburn.net/rumford1.JPG

The actual miniature shown above, was acquired within USA, rather than Germany, and was purchased at not a great distance from Concord MA, where Rumford's daughter returned to live.

Count Rumford is discussed in more detail below.

Bavarian Uniforms

Another kind visitor has also provided the following comments about Bavarian uniforms of the 18C.

"However, so far as I know, the Bavarian general officers' uniform was blue, not white. It was either dark blue, or a medium blue called cornflower blue - there is some dispute about which shade of blue Bavarians wore in the 18th century though they were definitely cornflower blue by Napoleonic times.

So the question is: why is your man in white? Well, several possible answers. Maybe he is wearing a cavalry uniform (some Bavarian cavalry units had white coats). Or possibly he is wearing a Holy Roman Empire uniform (I note that he was not only Duke of Bavaria, but also from the Palatinate (called Pfalz in German) - there were smaller armies in the Holy Roman Empire, including from Pfalz, all of which made up together what was called the Reichsarmee. Some of these little armies wore white - I'm not sure if Pfalz did or did not, though. Also, the Austrians and French did wear white.

So far as the coloured panels are concerned, these are called 'lapels'. Together with the 'cuffs' and the 'turnbacks' (the triangles formed by turning back the coat-tails), these together were called 'distinctives' or (later) 'facings'. The colours of the distinctives were used to differentiate one regiment from another. For instance, all Bavarian infantry regiments wore identical blue uniform coats, but had different coloured facings to distinguish them, such as red, white, yellow, black or buff. General officers also sometimes had facings, which were usually a specified colour, with their rank distinguished by the amount of gold braid on them.

So your man is either wearing uniforms from two separate units or countries - or possibly the colour of the facings had changed in some sort of uniform reorganisation between the time of the two portraits."

More on Karl Theodor
When Karl Theodor inherited the Palatinate in 1742, the Mannheim Palace was still incomplete.

Construction had commenced in 1720. As with most public buildings before and since, it took much longer and cost a lot more than intended.

The building process was to cost about 300,000 Gulden and be financed by an extraordinary “palace tax”, but in the end, the palace cost about 2,000,000 Gulden and severely worsened the Palatinate's financial situation. The first administrative institutions began using the palace in 1725, but the court only transferred to the new residence in 1731. Construction was not completed until 1760.

During Karl Theodor's reign, the palace and the city of Mannheim saw their zenith. The glamour of the Elector's court and Mannheim's then famous cultural life lasted until 1778, when Karl Theodor became Elector of Bavaria by inheritance and he moved his court to Munich. Although Mannheim kept the title of “residence”, the palace was used merely as accommodation for several administrative bodies.

On the union with Bavaria Karl Theodor instantly managed to make everyone in Bavaria his enemy by proposing to Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790) of Austria that they exchange parts of Bavaria for some Austrian possessions, along the Rhine and in Belgium and close to Karl's dominions; the Palatinate, Jülich and Berg.

There is a miniature portrait of Joseph II of Austria in this collection, see
Bencini, Antionio - portrait of Joseph II Joseph II was the brother of Marie Antoinette.

The ensuing diplomatic crisis over the proposed exchange led to the outbreak of the War of the Bavarian Succession. At the ensuing Peace of Teschen in 1779 it was resolved that Karl's descendants would not inherit the throne of Bavaria.

Karl Theodor never became popular as ruler of Bavaria. In the following years, he constantly tried without success to exchange the ducal lands of Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands and a royal crown, and he never managed to control the mounting social tensions in Bavaria.

Karl Theodor was a great lover of the arts, including drama and especially music. His Mannheim court orchestra was considered one of the finest in its time.

Mozart applied for a position with the Mannheim orchestra in 1777, but was turned down, as the court was about to move to Munich. In 1780, Karl Theodor commissioned Idomeneo from the composer. Mozart quotes him as saying "No music has ever made such an impression on me. It is magnificent." (David Cairns, Mozart and his operas, 2006, p.48)

Despite the mutual dislike and distrust between him and his Bavarian subjects, Karl Theodor left a distinctive mark on the city of Munich; it was under his reign that the "English Garden", Munich's largest park, was created and the city's old fortifications were dismantled to make place for a modern, expanding city.

The English Garden with 417 hectares, is one of the largest inner-city parks in the world, even larger than Central Park in New York or Hyde Park in London. See Bavarian Palace Department | Gardens | Munich English Garden

More on Count Rumford

The choice of the name, the English Garden and its design, seem to be due to an American born in Woburn Massachusetts!

Count Rumford is shown on the left as a statue erected in Munich in 1867, and on the right in an exact replica from the same casting which was donated to the citizens of Woburn, MA by Marshall Tidd in 1900.

Although few people today remember Rumford's name, he had some famous admirers, including FDR.

“Many-sided men,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt told an interviewer in 1932, “have always attracted me. I have always had the keenest interest in five men … of comparatively modern times.” They were Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon, Theodore Roosevelt, and Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. Of Roosevelt’s list, the last named is the only one not now a household word. See AmericanHeritage.com / Rumford

Rumford was born Benjamin Thompson (26 Mar 1753-1814) in this house which still retains his cradle, although one wonders whether its exterior color is original!

Apprenticeships in the importing trade and the study of medicine absorbed much of his young life until at the age of 19 he became a schoolmaster in Concord (earlier called Rumford) N.H. There he met and married a wealthy widow, Mrs. Sarah Rolf, who was also the daughter of Reverend Timothy Walker. In this position of influence, young Thompson met Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire who was impressed enough to name him Major in the 2nd Provincial Regiment.

This commission, awarded to him over older men, and his continued contacts with influential British officers, such as General Gage in Boston, set him in the center of controversy. In 1774 a committee of Concord citizens charged him with “being unfriendly to the cause of liberty.” Though acquitted, he felt the atmosphere so inimical that he returned to Woburn and to the home of his mother where he was joined by his wife and infant daughter.

Then as a loyalist he left for England in March 1776. In England his scientific career prospered. While serving in the Government Colonial Office his scientific study and experiments, particularly with gunpowder, were so successful that he was elected in 1779, at the age of 26, to the prestigious Royal Society. He was knighted as Sir Benjamin Thompson in 1784.

In 1785 he was appointed by Karl Theodor as Major-General of Cavalry and Privy Councillor of Bavaria. Thompson worked in Bavaria for over ten years and in recognition of his assistance, Karl Theodor created him Count Rumford on 9 May 1792.

Thompson thus had spent over a decade in Bavaria, where he:
• Reorganized the army
• Invented a special soup for the poor
• Taught Bavarians to cultivate potatoes
• Invented wax candles
• Built the English Garden
• Invented the double-boiler and the drip coffee-maker
• Published An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction, a tract that overturned conventional scientific wisdom
• Became a Count of the Holy Roman Empire
• Invented thermal underwear

Rumford wrote many papers and also some books. At the end of the 18C many items were published in a set of three volumes; "ESSAYS, Political, Economical, and Philosophical" by Benjamin Count of Rumford, where he described himself as: Knight of the Orders of the White Eagle, and St. Stanislaus; Chamberlain, Privy Counsellor of State, and Lieutenant-General in the Service of his Most Serene Highness the Elector Palatine, Reigning DUKE of BAVARIA; Colonel of his Regiment of Artillery, and Commander in Chief of the General Staff of his Army; FRS. Acad. R. Hiber. Berol. Elec. Boic(oe). Palat. etc. et Amer. Soc.


Several of books have been written about Count Rumford and his discoveries, including a cookbook and a book about fireplaces.

For example the introduction to the cookbook comments; "After a century and a half, he is honored today as the grand master of the great guild of chefs, the first and greatest scientist of the kitchen.

He was the first to study diet; to invent an effective oven, and roaster, and tea kettle, and boiler; to advocate drip coffee; to suggest holes in the handles of pots and pans so they can be hung up; to analyze fuels and the management of heat; to devise the modern air-tight stove; to lay out efficient kitchens; to reason about the construction of oven doors and thereby open up the great field of insulation."

“My principal design,” he said, “is to fix the attention of my readers on a subject which is highly interesting and deserving of the most serious consideration. I wish to inspire cooks with a just idea of the importance of their art. In what other art could improvements be made that would more powerfully contribute to the enjoyments of mankind?”

Rumford Medal and Rumford Prize

Count Rumford in 1796, gave $5,000 each to the Royal Society of Great Britain and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to award medals every two years for outstanding scientific research on heat or light.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences awards the Rumford Prize, while the Royal Society awards the Rumford Medal. A picture of the Rumford Medal is shown above.

Also shown is another medal with a portrait of Rumford, but it seems unlikely the latter is based on a contemporary portrait of Rumford, as the collar of the uniform looks to date from 1805 or even later. By then Rumford had been out of the military for some years. It is a commemorative medal by Moritz Furst issued by the AAAS in 1951, see The Life and Legend of Count Rumford and numismatics.org:1940.100.1962

The medal is inscribed on the obverse: "BENJAMIN COUNT RUMFORD BORN 1753 DIED 1814 and on the reverse: RUMFORD MEDAL FOR DISCOVERIES IN LIGHT OR HEAT|AWARDED BY THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES TO ...". Although it is inscribed as the Rumford Medal, it seems that the wording is intended to refer to the Rumford Prize.

Established in 1839, the Rumford Prize is one of the oldest scientific prizes in the United States.

The first person to receive the Rumford Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was Dr Robert Hare (1781-1858) who was born in Philadelphia and was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1819-1847, where he became Professor Emeritus.

The award reads; "Robert Hare, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for his invention of the "compound" or "oxyhydrogen" blowpipe".

Dr Hare is depicted here in a miniature in this collection painted by James Peale, for more about Robert Hare and the miniature, see Peale, James - portrait of Dr Robert Hare The AAAS Rumford Prize was not awarded again until 1862.

Among those who have received the Rumford Medal from the Royal Society are Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, James Maxwell, and John Tyndall.

Among those who have received the award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences are Josiah Gibbs, Thomas Edison, Albert Michelson, Irving Langmuir, Arthur Compton, Karl Compton, Enrico Fermi, and Edwin Land.

Rumford was also instrumental in the founding of the Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, including Henry Cavendish and its first president, George Finch, the 9th Earl of Winchilsea, for "diffusing the knowledge, and facilitating the general introduction, of useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and for teaching, by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments, the application of science to the common purposes of life." Much of its initial funding and the initial proposal for its founding were given by the Society for Bettering the Conditions and Improving the Comforts of the Poor, under the guidance of philanthropist Sir Thomas Bernard and Count Rumford.

At his funeral in Paris in 1814 Rumford was described as the “benefactor of humanity”. He left a will dated September 28, 1812; one of its witnesses was the Marquis de Lafayette. Included in the bequests were a plain gold watch for the chemist Humphry Davy and a gold-headed cane and gold-enameled watch, with the gold chain and seals attached, for the American Daniel Parker. To Benjamin, Baron Delessert, Rumford left a gold-enameled snuffbox, set around with diamonds, that had been given him by His Majesty Francis II, Emperor of Austria.

The bulk of the estate, however, was set aside for a trio of beneficiaries: Harvard College, the United States Military Academy, and Rumford’s daughter, Sarah.

The portion of the estate was left to Harvard University enabled the present Rumford Professorship to be established.

Sarah, Countess of Rumford
Daughter Sarah (1774-1852) shown here did not marry, although she had wanted to. After her mother died, Rumford sent for her to come to Europe to serve as his companion. Thus, around 1796, at her father's request, Sarah Thompson travelled to London to be with him. Their relationship proved uneasy, often strained; after his death she returned to Concord.

In 1797, the Elector of Bavaria accepted Sarah Thompson as a Countess of the Holy Roman Empire. In recognition of her father's military services to Bavaria, she was to be given one half of his pension of 2000 florins upon his death, with the right to live in any country she wished. When her father died in 1814 she became "Countess Rumford".

As the Dowager Sarah, Countess Rumford, she died on December 2, 1852, when she was seventy-nine years old. She left her large house and land in Concord, and her considerable fortune, to charity. She had two favorite causes and endowed them by bequest: a home for parentless children and the New Hampshire Asylum for the indigent insane.

Although there is no accompanying provenance, this miniature portrait was acquired in the United States from Kensington, MD, which is less than 450 miles from Concord, MA. As it represents Rumford's benefactor and would have been painted while he was in Bavaria, it is even possible the miniature was left as part of his estate to his daughter Sarah. 1344